


Bonding (Mom)ent

by Imwastingmylifeinhere



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keith coming out to Shiro is my favourite, Krolia is the biggest klance shipper, Lets admit it, M/M, Mentioned klance, Mother-Son Relationship, You can't convince me otherwise, same with Keith talking to krolia about Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 18:56:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15713085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imwastingmylifeinhere/pseuds/Imwastingmylifeinhere
Summary: “Shiro, can I ask you something?” young Keith finally said. He could now see how Shiro raised his head to look at him, but his younger self was stubbornly glaring at the floor. Keith could still remember the knots his stomach was tied in at that moment, so he wasn't surprised when his younger self didn't let Shiro answer and just spoke.“Is it weird if I like boys?”





	Bonding (Mom)ent

**Author's Note:**

> It’s ALIIIIVE! I really enjoyed watching this, it was about time I wrote something for voltron. This is based on [ikimaru's beautiful art!](http://ikimaru.tumblr.com/post/175393685895/based-on-a-headcanon-i-have-that-he-probably-told)

It was three months, two weeks and six days since Keith and Krolia had gotten on the space-whale. Or, that's how long it felt to them. With how warped time and space were at the abyss, no one could tell whether they've been here for a few minutes or a couple decades to the outside world.

However long it was, it was getting late (at least according to the time-counting system they set up with bits and pieces of the hardware their suits had on). Krolia was inside the cave, feeding the fire they'd cook their food on. Keith was at the mouth of the cave they made into a home, the space wolf at his heels, when another flash of light shot across space.

For a second, everything was blindingly white. Then the light faded away and Keith could see shapes forming and coming to life with color. It was almost like someone adjusting the lens on a camera until the picture came into focus. When it did, he immediately recognized what the moment in time that was playing in front of him.

He remembered this conversation very clearly. He was wearing his old red jacket, the one with the white hood he loved to pull over his head and pretend the world didn't exist anymore. There were scratches on his cheeks and he wasn't much older than ten or eleven. He and Shiro were sitting at one of the benches outside the principal's office at his school. Keith didn't need to look at the clock on the other side of the hall to know it was long after students - and most teachers - had left the building.

For a moment, neither he or Shiro talked. They just sat next to each other in silence, young Keith staring at a spot between and right above the tips of his shoes. Shiro would do that, sometimes. Just sit in silence next to him until he found the words to describe what he wanted to talk about, until he was ready to talk about it. It worked pretty well, too. As in, it worked every time.

“Shiro, can I ask you something?” young Keith finally said. He could now see how Shiro raised his head to look at him, but his younger self was stubbornly glaring at the floor. Keith could still remember the knots his stomach was tied in at that moment, so he wasn't surprised when his younger self didn't let Shiro answer and just spoke.

“Is it weird if I like boys?” The words came out jagged, angry, almost like young Keith was daring Shiro to say yes. Except now Keith could hear the vulnerability in his words and see the little way he eyed Shiro from the corner of his eyes, searching for acceptance in the older man’s face but still scared if he didn't find it there.

Keith had to admit, it was pretty funny seeing Shiro’s surprised expression at something that was known fact now. But he guessed it was pretty surprising for Shiro, to have this kid he hadn't known for all that long come out to him.

“Some kid said it's weird,” young Keith continued. He was back to staring at the floor. Keith remembered getting more and more nervous with each passing second Shiro said nothing. He had been starting to question whether this was a good idea and his words were coming faster, almost blurted out. “I punched him.”

Pretty well too, from what he could remember. He hadn't been a master fighter or anything like that, but he knew more about martial arts than most of his classmates. At least enough to break someone's nose and get away with a few scratches.

Not that his younger self was thinking about any of that at that moment. He was too busy trying to control his wet eyes, too stubborn to allow himself to cry in front of Shiro, even though he'd do it time and time again after this.

“Hey…” Shiro said, reaching a hand out to rest on young Keith’s shoulder. He could remember the surge of relief he had felt when Shiro spoke up. Now, watching from the outside, he noticed the shudder that run though his younger self’s whole body before he gave up and wiped the tears from his eyes with his palm.

“It's fine,” Shiro said, “don't let anyone tell you otherwise.” Then he did that nervous little laugh, the one that said “I have no idea how to care for a child, what the fuck am I doing?” Keith had gotten pretty good at recognizing that laugh. “But punching them won't fix things,” Shiro added.

Keith remembered how the conversation went after that. He remembered it down to the pauses and awkward gestures, but he saw none of it. The scene in front of him glowed white, so bright he had to close his eyes, and when it faded away he was back on the space whale.

He took a deep breath. Those flashbacks were always very disorienting when they finished, like being spun around till you couldn't see straight and then suddenly stopped.

“Keith?” Krolia’s voice was unabashedly surprised, in the way a child’s is when they learn something new. Keith, on the other hand, was struck with the sudden realization that he wasn't the only one who saw the flashback.

Shit. Shit _shit shit shit_.

“Did you - did you see that?” he asks, half turned around to look at Krolia.

She laughed nervously, and it sounded so much like Shiro’s patented “what is parenting” laugh. Maybe they could start a club. “Do you want to talk about it?”

It took Keith a couple of moments for the question to register in his brain. “Sure,” he said, smiling because who would have thought he'd ever come out to his purple alien mother on top a space whale?

He sat down near Krolia, the fire crackling between them. He didn't speak, and neither did she for a moment. Keith eyed her from the corner of his eyes. Her gaze was trained on the flames, as if they'd provide her with the words to voice her thoughts.

“So,” she said finally, “you like boys?” Krolia’s words lacked the silent accusatory tone that question had every other time Keith had received it. It simply sounded genuine.

“Yeah.” He poked at the fire with a stick and let it be taken by the flames. He turned to look Krolia in the eyes, voice steely and confident. “Is that a problem?”

“What? No, of course it's not!” Her yellow eyes were wide and she looked like what Keith was asking was completely alien to her. Realization flashed across her face and she asked, “Is it on earth?”

Keith shrugged. “Sometimes? In some places, it's no big deal, in some people think it gives them a right to treat you like you're less and in some it's illegal. And sometimes there are still people who think it's a problem in places you were sure it wouldn't matter.”

Keith had seen what Krolia looked like when she was in the middle of battle, when she held a knife to someone's throat. She looked exactly like that as she muttered, “That's horrible.”

Keith poked at the flames again as a thick log broke in half with a loud crack. “Yeah, well. It could be worse.”

“It could be better, too,” Krolia said, in a tone of voice that suggested she was fully prepared to personally “persuade” every single homophobe on earth to change their hateful views.

Keith sighed, the kind of angry sigh that let Krolia know he was down to help her with that idea. “Yeah, it could. Do garla not have similar mindsets?”

“Stars, no!” Krolia yelled, absolutely appealed by the thought. “Garla are a very violent people -”

“I've noticed.”

“And,” she continued with a playful look at Keith, “war and battle have always been part of our culture. _Zarkon_ tainted that culture.” The dead emperor's name fell off her lips like it was a terrible slur. “Garla have traditionally always valued the bonds between people - all kinds of bonds. When you love someone, you fight for them every single second you're on the battlefield. Who that love is for isn't important, not to the Garla.”

It's a whole new level of disappointment, Keith realized, to learn that even a species that started a ten thousand year war and slaughtered the inhabitants of entire planets are more accepting of queer people than some folks on earth.

“Zarkon doesn't exactly strike me as someone who would march in a pride parade,” Keith mused. Although the mental image of the late emperor in rainbow make-up and glitter was very amusing.

“I… don't really know what that is, but Zarkon trampled even the most basic concepts of our people. He put a lot of focus on ‘expanding the Garla race’ and would treat those who couldn't like second-class beings. Thankfully, it was one of his less popular ideas and it never caught on. It didn't make sense to Garla; why treat someone bad for something like love, something that made them stronger?”

 “Wow,” Keith muttered. “Now I feel ashamed on behalf of the entire human race.”

 Krolia laughed and it surprised Keith how similar their laughs sounded. “Yes. I'm sorry you had to experience something like that.”

Keith smiled at her. “I wasn't alone. I had some great people stand by me.”

“The man from the flashback?”

He nodded. “Shiro. He’s like a brother to me. He's gay as well- that's what we call it on earth. He helped me a lot when I was younger and kids would mess with me for it.”

“Did you fight with them too?” Krolia asked with a raised eyebrow.

Keith chuckled. “Yeah. One kid said once that gay people can't be happy and I ended up fighting with him over it.”

“Did you win?”

Keith smiled. It probably shouldn't make him feel this good that he had beat up a kid back when he was younger, but it did. “He had to get a cast for his arm afterward. Shiro wasn't happy about that.”

Krolia beamed and yeah, Keith had probably gotten that from her. “That's my boy.”

They were quiet for a little while, watching the embers of the fire. It wasn't bad though. It was the kind of silence he'd share with Shiro when neither of them had something to say and they just enjoyed each other's company.

“Do you have a mate?” Krolia asked suddenly. Keith blushed as red as his paladin armor.

“What?” Krolia tilted her head in confusion.

“That's not what you call it on earth, is it? Mm, what was the word?” She rubbed at her temples as she concentrated. “Why do you have so many terms for it? Just call it a mate and be done with it…”

 _I am… actually about to talk about my love life to my purple alien mother_ , Keith thought solemnly. _Never thought this is what it'd come to._

“I got it!” Krolia exclaimed. “Lover!”

_What is my life?_

“It's… boyfriend, actually,” Keith muttered.

“Really?” Krolia seemed surprised. “But lover sounds better. And it's the same for every gender.”

Keith shrugged. “Well, either way, I don't have a boyfriend.”

“Someone you like then?”

Keith didn't say anything, he didn't even look at her, so he didn't understand how Krolia knew.

“There is, isn't there,” she said and it wasn't quite a question.

Keith nodded. Might as well tell; they'll be on the space whale for some time still so Krolia would surely ask again if she didn't learn now.

“It's Lance.”

“Lance?” Krolia blinked and… she didn't look that surprised. “That's the pilot of the Blue Lion, right?”

 “Originally. He pilots Red now.”

Keith felt Krolia’ eyes on him and he looked up from the flames. She was looking at him with a fond, knowing look and he once more thought she and Shiro should start a club.

“What?”

“It's nothing, just… you looked so much like your father.” Krolia reached out, slowly, and tucked some of Keith's bangs out of his face. He recognized the look in her eyes from the times she'd talk about his dad and the months she spent with them on earth.

“You were thinking of him, weren't you?” She asked and Keith knew she wasn't talking about his dad.

He nodded.

“Do you miss him?”

Keith sighed and nodded again. “Yeah. I miss everyone from the castle.”

“Then why did you leave?”

Keith tugged his bangs out of his eyes. “After Shiro went missing Allura became a paladin. When he came back, we had one paladin too much.” Keith didn't look at Krolia. He hadn't told this to any of the paladins after he left and to be finally speaking about it felt big. “Lance had told me he worried he wasn't important to the team anymore. Which is completely ridiculous!” His voice rose and Krolia chuckled.

“So I left.” He shrugged, because he really didn't know what else to say. Someone had to step back from piloting, and it's not like he couldn't be replaced. They would have realized it soon enough anyway, that they could do without him, so it's better he left before it happened.

Even if it really, really didn't feel like that.

“That's stupid.”

Keith raised his head to look at her. “What-"

“I know the look on your face, Keith,” Krolia continued. “It says ‘I'm not important, I'm expendable, it doesn't matter if I die’.” She looked him in the eyes, firm and serious. Keith knew Krolia was a member of the Blade, but it was never as stark as it was now. It was as if every moment, every second, she had spent in this war was etched into her very skin and bones, as much a part of her as her blood. She was a soldier, with all the scars of one, and it showed.

“It matters. I haven't met the paladins of Voltron personally, but the abyss has shown them to me. They care for you. It would matter to them.” _It would hurt them. It would break them._ Krolia never said the words, but her silence did, and they were deafening.

“Keith,” she said and tentatively took his hand. “If there was a way for me to keep you safe and stay with you and your father on earth, I would have stayed without a thought. But there wasn't.”

Her voice shook just barely as she talked. Like Keith, Krolia showed emotion in subtler ways. There was nothing subtle about the regret on her face.

“You… you can protect the people you love and keep them close as well. And you're throwing it away.”

Keith opened his mouth to say something, anything, but he didn't. He couldn't, not when he knew deep down she was right.

Krolia’s smile was warm as she squeezed his hand. “You should go back to them.”

A part of Keith wanted to be stubborn, bring up the Blade of Marmora. But it was a tiny part, because he really, really wanted to be back at the castle. It scared him, how much he wanted it.

He nodded at Krolia, and he knew she didn't miss the smile on his lips. “Okay. But you have to come with me.”

Krolia chuckled. “You thought I was going to leave? Not until the stars go out, kitten.”

He couldn't help laughing at that. “Kitten?”

“I used to call you that when you were a baby.” She ruffled his hair and looked him up and down. “Not much of a kitten anymore, but I still like it.”

Keith should probably be complaining about a pet name as cheesy as ‘kitten' but he couldn't bring himself to. He hadn't had a parent to call him a nickname in years.

“But I'm not letting you go. I've lost too much time with you to do that.” The space wolf was lying by her feet now, and she smirked as she petted his fur. “Plus, I got to meet that boy you fell for. He has to be quite something if just mentioning him makes you blush that much.”

Keith hated that she was right. “I'll regret telling you about this, huh?”

“Oh, yes.” Krolia got up and dusted herself off. “Now, let's get dinner going. I'm hungry.”

Keith smiled and followed after her. They might have to be in the quantum abyss for a long time still, but he could never mind spending time with his mother.


End file.
